The court of Cacus, or, the story of Burke and Hare / by Alexander Leighton.

  • Leighton, Alexander, 1800-1874.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The court of Cacus, or, the story of Burke and Hare / by Alexander Leighton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    It is reported that one old woman was not only wonder- fully emphatic and ferocious in her gestures, but strove to get forward to strike the villain with the end of her umbrella. And lucky it was that she did not get in the front, for mischief, like fire, needs only a beginning, and if one individual had lifted a hand, his fate would have been sealed. When the police arrived, the room was cleared, and Hare conveyed to a safer place till the Galway mail should start. With a view to this the inn- yard was closed with difficulty, the horses put too, and the coach brought out. But the mob, with rather more eyes than the old watcher, had previously taken their plans, as if by instinct, and their aspect appeared so threat- ening that it was impossible to drive the mail along the High Street with the fearful man either inside or out. The coach accordingly started perfectly empty, two pas- sengers having been sent forward a few miles in a gig. The crowd opened and recoiled — the tremendous rush, the appalling waves on waves of people, heaving to and fro; and now the coach is again surrounded, amidst yells the doors opened, the interior exposed, even the boot examined. The people were still more exasperated be- cause their plan was defeated—no other than to stop the mail at the middle of the bridge, and precipitate Hare from the parapet down into the river. Failing in this, they had determined to waylay the coach at Cassy- lands toll-bar, and there execute their purpose in another